Expatriate compensation and its link to the subsidiary strategic role: a theoretical analysis

This paper focuses on the strategic design of expatriates' salaries. Unlike standard expatriation literature that assumes a lack of connection between strategy and international managers' compensation, we use the theoretical concepts from the international strategic management research to discuss how different international strategies affect the way expatriates are compensated. In this respect, the paper proposes a series of hypotheses on how expatriate compensation systems take shape according to the role that the expatriates may play in the internationalization process. The hypotheses refer to the type of incentives offered to encourage acceptance of the assignment, the type of criteria used to evaluate their performance and the reference unit used to establish variable compensation.     

Connecting strategic orientation,innovation strategy,and corporate sustainability: A model for sustainable development through stakeholder engagement

This paper aims to enhance our understanding of the relationship between organizations' strategic orientation (i.e., instrumental, equidistant, and stewardship) and their innovational strategy (i.e., organizational ambidexterity and open innovation), and this relationship's influence on their sustainability performance. We expected organizations' strategic orientation to influence their innovational strategy and exhibit better corporate sustainability. We focused on 12 different multinational organizations in the Eurozone and found that inbound open innovation acts as a driver for corporate sustainability while simultaneously positively enabling organizations to pursue both financial and social initiatives. After suggesting open innovation as a new corporate sustainability antecedent, we only found empirical evidence of inbound open innovation. However, we would suggest that if organizations incorporated outbound open innovation in their strategy, they could likely improve their corporate sustainability. Also, we found that achieving an equidistant or stewardship orientation paves the way for sustainability to become an integral part of an organization's innovational culture and actualizes the organization's strategic behavior. Our findings further contribute to a deeper understanding of organizations' characteristics as their sustainability commitment grows and as they move from an instrumental to a stewardship orientation and implement an open innovational strategy.     

跳板理论视角下跨国并购对双元创新的影响机制与未来展望

跳板理论为双元领域的研究提供了国际化的视角与思路。基于跳板理论的核心内容，本文探讨跨国并购对双元创新的影响机制。跳板理论视角下，双元创新研究突破以往组织内部双元的局限性，拓展至内外双元与跨模式双元，进而推动跨越组织边界与国际边界的跨国并购这一跳板行为对探索式创新、利用式创新以及双元创新平衡的影响研究。基于双向知识转移的并购整合是跨国并购对双元创新影响过程的核心作用机理，且创新网络嵌入、技术距离以及制度距离在上述影响关系中发挥着重要的调节作用。在此基础上，本文提出该领域后续值得深入研究的问题，旨在推动跳板理论在双元创新领域的繁衍，丰富跨国并购领域的研究成果，同时为企业国际化战略决策与实施提供重要的理论参考。     

New product development in foreign customer relationships: a study of international SMEs

Abstract

This study identifies a gap in research concerning how small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) can benefit from pursuing locally (rather than globally) oriented internationalization strategies. Becoming overly dependent on one single foreign market could potentially reduce the inflow and diversity of new knowledge that can serve as input for new product development. This study discusses how this risk can be minimized. In this endeavour we create a theoretical model that investigates how the local sales concentration and relationship-specific commitment of SMEs relates to new product development. To do this we draw on the behavioural internationalization process framework. The theoretical model is tested on an effective sample of 188 Swedish SMEs. The results show that relationship-specific commitment mediates the effect of local sales concentration on new product development. The implication is that investments which enable collaboration in important business relationships are crucial requisites for keeping firms innovative and in pace with market fluctuations. The findings thus contribute to international business literature by showing that a local market scope of operations combined with a relationship orientation are beneficial for new product development in international SMEs.     

Green management,firm innovations,and environmental turbulence

The multifaceted nature of firm innovation has prevented researchers from fully explaining the relationship between firm innovation and green management. This study, building on the Schumpeterian theory of innovation, explores this relationship by examining three major types of firm innovation—strategic innovation, managerial innovation, and product innovation—and their respective relationships with green management, considering several dimensions of environmental turbulence as distinctive boundary conditions. We propose that both strategic innovation and managerial innovation facilitate green management, which in turn mediates these effects on new product performance. The results of a survey of 303 Chinese firms provide strong support for this mediating logic. Moreover, we find that market turbulence weakens the effect of strategic innovation on green management whereas technological turbulence strengthens such effect but the effect of managerial innovation on green management is not influenced by environmental turbulence. Our research contributes to the innovation as well as green management and sustainability literatures by offering a framework in which to analyze firm innovation and green management and by showing how firms pursue sustainability and prosperity under specific environmental conditions.     

Attention-based view on achieving ambidexterity in purchasing and supply management

The focus of purchasing and supply management (PSM) is no longer just on short-term cost savings, but is also on long-term goals such as innovation and renewal. Because of this new dual role PSM needs to balance the short-term goals referred to as exploitation, and the long-term strategic goals referred to as exploration. However, developing in-depth knowledge of the supply markets in order to achieve PSM ambidexterity is challenging, as it requires much managerial attention that is limited in nature. This research draws on the attention-based view (ABV) to study the antecedents of ambidexterity in PSM. Based on a survey of 154 Finnish manufacturing firms, a set of hypotheses was tested using structural equation modeling. The results indicate that bottom-up supply market attention has a stronger association than top-down supply market attention with all three PSM goals: exploitation, exploration and ambidexterity. PSM status is positively associated with both bottom-up and top-down supply market attention. Top management should support activities aimed at capturing supply market opportunities by ensuring that the PSM staff is not overburdened and have enough time to focus on supply market intelligence gathering and analyses. This research is among the first to study the role and enablers of attentional mechanisms that underpin ambidexterity in PSM. A contribution to the ABV theory is made by suggesting operationalizations of managerial attention constructs.     

MNC's competitive strategies,experiences, and staffing policies for foreign affiliates

This study investigates the relationship between the strategic role of a multinational corporation's (MNC) foreign affiliates and its international staffing policy. Specifically, this study examines how an MNC's decision on expatriation is affected by strategic roles assigned to foreign affiliates: global integration of activities versus local market seeking. An empirical study is conducted using a sample of 808 foreign affiliates of Japanese firms. The research findings suggest that strategic roles of foreign affiliates alone may not adequately explain the international staffing policies of Japanese MNCs. Rather, we found a significant moderating effect of international as well as host country experience on staffing practices for foreign affiliates. While the staffing policies of MNCs striving for improving global efficiency of their operation are moderated by both international and host country experience, those seeking a specific local market position are influenced only by host country experience.     

Ambidexterity under digitalization: A tale of two decades of new media at a Swedish newspaper

The digitalization of the newspaper industry represents a significant challenge for incumbent companies to engage new technologies. Many companies in the industry have had to seek new markets through digital technologies to survive. This paper explores how one of the largest Swedish newspapers, Aftonbladet, has strategically embraced new media and new markets. We report a decade of engaged scholarship based on interviews and archival analysis that covers 20 years of strategic acts at the company. We consider this effort as a case of organizational ambidexterity under digitalization. The analysis seeks to extend theoretical understanding of the interrelationships between strategic intent and technological choice. The paper contributes to the understanding of ambidexterity under digitalization by theoretically framing it in terms of strategic acts. The research suggests that digitalization implies a more complex ambidexterity interrelationship between old and new markets and technologies. As digitalization enables the loosening of previously tight couplings, the clear theoretical distinction between old and new, and critically, the unproblematic transition, is brought into question. The paper suggests replacing the notion of an orderly shift from the old to the new with ambidexterity under digitalization as a duality of both old and new undergoing continual reconfiguration.     

Role overload,knowledge acquisition and job satisfaction: An ambidexterity perspective on boundary-spanning activities of IT employees

Abstract

Building upon the ambidexterity perspective, this study conceptualizes boundary-spanning activities as both transactional and learning to illuminate their different effects on IT employees’ job satisfaction. Specifically, we offer an overarching theoretical framework rooted in ambidexterity by connecting the role theory and knowledge acquisition perspective to reconcile the inconsistency of extant findings. Role overload has a mediating effect on the relationship between boundary-spanning activities (both transactional and learning) and job satisfaction, whereas knowledge acquisition mediates the relationship between learning boundary-spanning activities and job satisfaction. Furthermore, high achievement motivation and learning goal orientation moderate the positive effect of learning boundary-spanning activities on job satisfaction. The quantitative analysis of IT employees in Chinese state-owned enterprises largely supports our hypotheses. We conclude this paper by discussing theoretical and managerial implications for ambidexterity, boundary spanning, and job satisfaction.     

国际营销动态能力的制度驱动机制研究——基于四川长虹国际化进程的案例分析

随着国际市场动荡性的不断增强,国际化企业如何在持续变化的外部环境下获取和维持竞争优势成为战略营销研究的关注焦点;国际营销动态能力概念为企业应对激烈国际市场竞争提供了新的指导工具。本研究基于制度理论的视角,从管制、规范和文化认知三大系统中识别出若干制度因素;通过对四川长虹国际化进程的案例分析,考察了企业在不同国际化阶段驱动国际营销动态能力的关键因素及实现机制;最后对研究所提供的理论和实践启示进行讨论。     

Antecedents to ambidexterity competency in high technology organizations

High tech organizations confront dual demands of exploring new products/processes and exploiting existing products/processes. Research shows that ambidextrous organizations can better manage these dual demands, but our understanding of the antecedents that lead to ambidexterity is still emerging. In addition, previous research has taken a piecemeal approach to understand ambidexterity and does not fully consider its multilevel nature. This research takes a multilevel perspective and argues that a competency in ambidexterity involves three capabilities at different organizational levels: decision risk (strategic level), structural differentiation (project level), and contextual alignment (meso level). After correcting for endogeneity we empirically examine the relationship between these antecedents and ambidexterity competency by collecting multi-level data from 34 high tech business units and 110 exploration and exploitation R&D projects. The results indicate that decision risk and contextual alignment affect ambidexterity competency for high tech organizations. Structural differentiation does not affect ambidexterity competency but has mixed effects on R&D project performance.     

The effect of CEO compensation structure on the early internationalization of newly public firms

This study suggests the incentive perspective as an antecedent of early internationalization. We argue that early internationalization is a risky strategy for a CEO in a relatively young firm and that a potential agency problem arises between a CEO and shareholders in such a context. By drawing on agency theory, we theorize that the CEO compensation structure plays a critical role in the early internationalization decision. In a sample of 145 newly public U.S. firms, we find that the likelihood of early internationalization is negatively associated with the CEO’s secured cash pay and positively associated with the CEO’s equity-based compensation. In addition, we find that the positive association between equity-based compensation and the likelihood of early internationalization becomes stronger as the CEO’s tenure increases. These findings show that the interest alignment between a CEO and shareholders affects the strategic decision of early internationalization. Our study contributes to the literature on corporate governance and international business by underscoring the importance of the compensation structure as a significant driver of value-creating strategic initiatives and by identifying incentive factors that spur firms to internationalize early.     

Technological capabilities and internationalization of high-tech ventures: The moderating role of strategic orientations

Venture firms' technological capabilities play a critical role in their internationalization. Applying a contingency-based approach to the internationalization of technology-based ventures, this study analyzes the moderating effects of strategic orientation on the relationship between technological capabilities and internationalization. The statistical analysis indicates that different strategic orientation types moderate the relationship between technological capabilities and internationalization in different directions. These findings suggest that strategic orientation offers an important context for understanding the internationalization of technology-based ventures.     

开放经济条件下银行国际化经营的战略选择

文章通过对国际银行业开拓国际化经营经验与教训的探讨,提出国际化经营并非是每家银行生存和发展的必由之路,对一家银行有效的战略并不意味着对其他银行也同样可以成功。在国内金融业务市场上,如果能准确定位自己的战略重点,即核心业务能力,反而更有可能成为一家成功的银行、优秀的银行。     

How Does Executive Strategic Human Resource Management Link to Organizational Ambidexterity? An Empirical Examination of Manufacturing Firms in China

Despite a plethora of studies that demonstrate the positive impact of strategic human resource management on firm performance, existing knowledge of the processes through which such gains can be achieved remains limited. This study aims to extend our knowledge by investigating the mechanism through which a teamwork‐oriented executive strategic human resource management system impacts organizational ambidexterity. Specifically, by integrating the resource‐based view and information‐processing theory, we examine the mediating role of top management team effectiveness and the moderating role of knowledge–sharing intensity from middle managers to top management teams. Drawing on a multiple‐source and multiple‐respondent survey from 144 manufacturing firms in China, we show that top management team effectiveness partially mediates the effect of the executive strategic human resource management system on organizational ambidexterity. Moreover, knowledge‐sharing intensity from middle managers to top management teams strengthens the effect of the executive strategic human resource management system on organizational ambidexterity. © 2016 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.     

The role of employee preferences and organizational culture in explaining e-commerce orientations

Culture has always been a cornerstone variable in the study of international business subjects. Several authors have dealt with the concept of culture and its dimensions. Among these Hall's (1981/1976) proposal of high- versus low-context cultures still stands as an important subject matter to be explored. This study is an attempt to explore the significance of high- versus low-context orientation and its implications for communications. Further, strategic orientation of the firm in terms of e-commerce adoption is explored within the framework of high- versus low-context organizational cultures and the internationalization and technological orientation level of the firm. A survey was conducted with 525 employees and managers working in financial services and textile manufacturing firms. Results supported the hypotheses that high- versus low-context values and perceptual and demographic characteristics of employees influence attitudes towards e-communication. Organizational culture regarding high- versus low-context practices, firm's internationalization and technological orientation levels influence the e-commerce adoption at a strategic level.     

A multilevel examination of high‐performance work systems and unit‐level organisational ambidexterity

This paper examines the process linking high‐performance work systems (HPWS) and organisational ambidexterity both at the unit and firm level of analyses by integrating strategic HRM, human capital and social capital perspectives. Multisource and multilevel data from 2,887 employees and 536 managers of 58 banks was collected. Results revealed that firm‐level HPWS were positively related to unit‐level employee human capital. Unit‐level employee human capital partially mediated the relationship between firm‐level HPWS and unit organisational ambidexterity. Furthermore, firm‐level social climate moderated the effect of firm‐level HPWS on unit organisational ambidexterity through unit‐level employee human capital. This paper contributes to HPWS and ambidexterity research by revealing the impacts of firm‐level HPWS and mediating mechanisms, as well as identifying boundary conditions for pursuing unit‐level organisational ambidexterity.     

Ambidextrous culture,contextual ambidexterity and new product innovations: The role of organizational slack and environmental factors

Contextual ambidexterity, defined as the simultaneous pursuit of alignment and adaptability at business unit, is linked to several organizational outcomes including improved performance and innovation outcomes. Extant research posits ambidextrous organizational culture as an important enabler to contextual ambidexterity but suffers from a lack of a well‐meaning scale for the same. In addition, there is very little understanding as to how tasking and facilitating environment can be on firms' endeavour for contextual ambidexterity and the outcomes thereof. Therefore, the current piece of research has twin objectives using two separate studies. First, to develop a scale for ambidextrous organizational culture construct and second, to analyse the role played by the external forces (munificence and dynamism) and internal slack resources on the relationships between ambidextrous organizational culture and contextual ambidexterity and between contextual ambidexterity and new product innovation outcomes through an empirical investigation in India. Using structural equation modelling on data from 414 respondents, we found environmental munificence to strengthen the relationships between ambidextrous organizational culture and contextual ambidexterity and between contextual ambidexterity and new product innovation outcomes. On the other hand, environmental dynamism had a dampening impact on these relationships. Our findings also suggest that for low slack organizations, dynamic and unmunificent environments magnified the negative impact on an organisation's ambidexterity efforts and new product innovation outcomes.     

Can proactive environmental strategy improve Multilatinas' level of internationalization? The moderating role of board independence

This paper explores the relationships between proactive environmental strategy (PES) and internationalization in emerging markets multinationals from Latin America (Multilatinas). Drawing on the resource‐based view and institutional theory and using a sample of 86 listed firms during the period 2013–2017, we find that Multilatinas with higher tiers of PES are associated with higher degrees of geographic international diversification. Because adopting PES is directly conditioned by institutional pressures to comply with stakeholders' regulations and expectations, Multilatinas that implement advanced PES will be able to achieve a higher level of international presence in foreign markets. Our results also reveal that board independence positively moderates the relationship between PES and geographic international diversification. Specifically, board independence provides Multilatinas with the opportunity to integrate valuable knowledge and expertise and thus to take advantage of implementing advanced PES to achieve even greater levels of internationalization. This study expands understanding of how environmental strategies influence internationalization of firms in the Latin American business context.     

我国会计准则与国际会计准则差异的原因分析

经济全球化必然要求会计标准的统一,资本市场、跨国公司和区域经济的发展等正推动着会计准则的国际化。本文首先概述了我国会计准则与国际会计准则差异的相关研究,然后通过对我国会计准则国际协调过程中与国际会计准则的差异原因分析,以期对根据我国的现状制定出适合国情的会计准则提供参考。